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diversity in the county will be discussed in the next article in this series.)
6) “Restrictions on private property should be enacted only when public health or safety is at risk, not for something subjective like aesthetics.”
As the Comprehensive Plan makes clear, our ridgetops and our agricultural land are our bones and blood. Their loss would be like the Black Death for Rappahannock County. What stronger case for regulation could there be?
Moreover, in the long history of regulating nuisances in the U.S., there are many examples of zoning to control loud noise or noxious odors, for example. Why is controlling visual pollution any less appropriate?
Some people worry that a local ordinance restricting ridgetop development might be struck down as exceeding what local governments in Virginia are authorized to do. But the proposed amendments and the stronger ones that preceded them use existing tools authorized in the Virginia Code, and are directly related to carrying out the Comprehensive Plan.
7) “You don’t own the view.”
Of course no one person can dictate what a neighbor up on the mountain can do. But in a broader sense, we do collectively “own” the view, and according to the
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